Wedding Festivities

This blog was a difficult one to write. For sure it is not for the reasons you might think. In the past two months since my last update, there were so many events that my head is still spinning. Telling all the stories in a 2-page readable update is a huge challenge and difficult! Here is a good try:

The short version:

Inbal & Pierre got married in France and Israel.

Two weddings (same couple…), 2 countries, 2 weeks, we traveled 10,000 miles each. Guests came from all over the world. Everyone was happy.

The long version:

The planning took place on several continents and lasted many months. Pierre’s parents from France and Inbal & Pierre from Uganda planned the festivities in France (in a minute you’ll understand why I used the term ‘festivities’ and not just ‘the wedding”.

Shoshi planned (I assisted a little) everything in Israel, some remotely and some during her visits to Israel. When it was six months before the wedding, we were still relaxed and before we knew it was about time to take off! We prayed that there will be no volcanic ash, no strikes, no delays, no rain – quite a bit to ask. The Excel file with all the family flights was complex: USA, England, Germany, Holland, Uganda, Israel, and Colombia – many airlines, connections, and airport pickups.

I also hoped to be fit for all the flights, activities, foods and travel. On the day of the flight to France I went for a few hours to Dana Farber for my check-up and also got the final OK to fly. One of the nurses laughed and said “I know you, you would have flown anyhow”. Absolutely right! So I went home to rest and after 3 hours took off to Paris with Shoshi and Lior. At the same time, Neta took off from Colombia.

We were lucky: everyone arrived more or less on time, the Icelandic volcano kept silent, no transportation and air traffic strikes, no rain in any of the wedding events and I was very healthy all the time, thanks to the wine and good cheeses. As you can see in one of the photos below, when there was a hill to climb, I got a little push from my family …

Lior and I spent 2 days in Paris, walking a lot, two museums, lots of coffee on the sidewalk and sight seeing. Then we joined the families who were already at the wedding site in Southern France. Paris-Lyon by the TGV train is amazing – 2 hours at 300 Km/h.

The location was the best possible setup: Pierre’s parents summer house at the edge of a small village (La Buisse) overlooking the Alps, next to very tall cliffs and a huge green in the front.

Guests started arriving to nearby 3 hotels and to La Buisse. Pierre’s parents (Leslie & Geoffroy) hospitality, in parallel to running after the last minute arrangements, made it very comfortable and pleasant to my family. It also provided a good opportunity to sit and talk and get to better know each other family.

The wedding festivities took some 3 days, just like it used to do it in medieval times or today in India.

Guests came from all over the world. I’ll need the world atlas in front of me to list all the countries. Inbal & Pierre are truly an international couple with their experiences and the evidence was their friends.

The first event took place in a beautiful chateau no far to the North. All the guests had a tour of this well maintained and furnished chateau, followed cocktail party on the lawn. Tables with large variety of appetizers, deserts, drinks were a perfect fit to life in a chateau! In the middle of the big yard, musicians played classical music as they did 500 years ago. Inbal was in a write crochet dress made by my mother that Shoshi married me 32 years ago! Closing circles.

The setting, scenery, beauty of the place made the atmosphere great. It was also a golden opportunity to know everyone before the wedding party the day after. How many wedding do you go to and recognize most of the people?

And so in the following evening of the wedding party (29 May 2010), the guests knew each other and I think it created a unique atmosphere for all of us.

In late May in France there is light until 10 pm. We stated at 6:30 pm and had almost 4 hours of daylight for the arrival of the guests, the appetizers, the Chupa, the wedding ceremony and the many group pictures for all. The meal, deserts and dancing took place till 4 am.

The wedding took place on the huge lawn under three big white tents with parquet floor. From the high cliffs above the house we could see 5 parasails of jumpers who used the unbelievable thermals and stayed in the air for more than an hour, watching the wedding from high above.

Inbal & Pierre crafted a wonderful and spiritual civil wedding ceremony in English, French and Hebrew, where every paragraph had a meaning. This wasn’t a standard wedding.

The Chupa and the 7 blessings, with reading in different languages by different people, made it all more interesting and very unique. During the ceremony Inbal and Pierre planted a tree, symbolic to a new beginning and hope.

As the two families stood on the podium with the young couple, I said to myself how lucky we all are.

Inbal & Pierre were excited, beautiful, beaming, happy and looked a lot at each other! They are a match for sure. As an anecdote, they both share the SAME birth date and month! That’s destiny.

After the meal Geoffroy and I gave short speeches. I must admit that this was a very moving moment for me.

The dancing lasted till 4 am. We had a large entourage from New Orleans (Leslie’s family) of very nice and warm people, who taught us how to dance Southern style with flapping your feet on the floor (making noise). At the end of the evening everyone danced Southern style. As expected, Pierre’s brothers ambushed Pierre and dragged him to the swimming pool – with them.

What a day!!!

The next morning, in the same place, a brunch was provided to all the gusts. Everyone came casual. Some dipped in the pool, some played tennis and some football (soccer…). Food, deserts and wine was on the tables, to remind everyone that this is still a wedding a party. As Lior said “now we have to detox from wine and cheese”.

The wedding in France was also one of those rare moments where all five of us are together! See the picture.

A day after the festivities were over, I sat outside of the house looking at the empty tents and beautiful scenery and I thought: did this really happen? All of us were HIGH for many days. A year in the planning, hard work by many family member, expenses, logistics and puff! It is done.

As the guests departed from their hotels and La Buisse, we were getting ready for the next event: Inbal & Pierre wedding party in Israel. We had to say goodbye to Neta who had to go back to Colombia. As a teacher she could not take many vacation days. NETA: the Colombian coffee that you gave me is the best I have ever had!

We took the wedding dress on-board in every flight. It was quite a schlep! Sometimes we had to plea not to check it in and sometime simply ignore the Air France staff and push our way into the aircraft with the dress. We took no chances.

In Israel we gave the dress to a dry clean and asked to do a rush job because of the wedding in 4 days. The guy at the dry clean was surprised and said: “you clean the dress AFTER the wedding and not BEFORE. Then I explained that it is the second wedding for the same couple... He has never heard something like that.

The 3 days before the wedding were hectic. The Israeli summer heat didn’t work well for me at all and Shoshi doesn’t like it either. However, everything was ready (sort off).

The party in Israel was also unique in a sense of the mix of languages, reading and text, all planned by Shoshi. It really added a lot to have family members participate in the ceremony. The location, Chagiga Bakfar (in Kfar Hess), was great and the food was excellent. The ceremony was under the Chupa and Pierre broke the glass with crowd cheering.

Almost everyone that we invited came to the party.

It was really a unique opportunity to see all the family in Israel, our friends and relatives whom we can’t see too often. Usually we come for a short visit and there is no chance to see everyone. To everyone who came: Thank You!

We had Pierre’s parents from France, his big brother & his fiancé from Switzerland, Iris & David from England, Sara & David from the US and my mother came from her seminar in Germany as a surprise. She attended the France wedding and wasn’t supposed to come to Israel. What a trooper!

Like in France, a day later the wedding, still high, a feeling of accomplishment. Suddenly all the months of preparations and waiting are behind. My first daughter is married!

Back in Needham, Shoshi and I enjoy our little paradise. The garden is blooming with plants that we planted just before going to France. The weather is good, a rain every few days to water the lawn and plants, wash the cars and cool the air. The exception: this week it is 30C.

I must keep the blog short, so this is for now about the wedding festivities. We have three thousands photos, some of you saw the links. Soon I will put on Picasa a small selection of the best.

As for myself, the medical roller coaster continues. In the past 3 months I had a few incidents of high fever of a few days.

The red color (see my previous blog – the color of the new chemo pills) disappointed me. The latest results showed regression, possibly because of the other complications. The good news is the doctors found the cause of the fever. I am now under heavy dosage of anti-biotics for 3 weeks to take care of the issues, then the treatment will continue. So far so good.

Hopefully we will see the numbers going down again.

Life is very manageable. Most of the time I have no pain or nausea, I eat well and go to work, but get quickly tired from doing the simplest tasks and some annoying side effects.

I have programmed myself to a long marathon and that’s the reason why I manage it well. It is OK to be disappointed at times (like this one), however always look straight forward for better times.

Always optimistic

Guy